Author Topic: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD  (Read 4511 times)

Offline idolminds

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Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 08:14:32 AM »
For XBLA and PC

"HD" (in this case meaning improved engine, textures, and models. You could already run the original in HD) remake of the first Serious Sam for Xbox 360. $15, late summer release.

Holy crap it looks good.

UPDATE
The big SS community Seriously! had this in their news on the story:
Quote
Roman Ribaric, Croteam's CEO, has told Seriously!, unofficially, that HD will use their new Serious Engine 3 technology and will also be released for the PC sometime after the XBLA release. He also said that HD represents a 10-year internal anniversary for Serious Sam and with its release Croteam hopes to give newcomers a chance to experience Serious Sam for the first time and for old hats to see that Croteam is serious about being serious (this ain't no Serious Sam 2) with this and all future Serious Sam games!

UPDATE2
Shacknews story updated. Seems the German publisher confirmed a PC release this fall.
« Last Edit: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 09:00:59 AM by idolminds »

Offline sirean_syan

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #1 on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 08:45:04 AM »
Having literally just replay the First Encounter (like I finished over the weekend), the game still looks good and provides a sort of experience that nothing else really has even tried to do. I was considering going through the Second Encounter soon, but maybe I'll hold off.

If the screen shots are correct (and why wouldn't they be?), then this includes both the original encounters. In the shots are some of the newer enemies and environments that only came out in the Second Encounter. Cool stuff.

Offline ren

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #2 on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 08:47:44 AM »
Awesome. SS:SE is one of my favourite games. Though I could just keep playing it on the computer...

Offline idolminds

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #3 on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 09:02:07 AM »
Now I'm torn. After we were talking about SS since you were playing it I've gotten the urge to play it again myself. But if this remake is coming...oooh, thats going to be a tough wait.

Offline idolminds

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #4 on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 01:45:54 PM »
So hows this for an interesting twist?
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The announcement of the Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD title today mentioned the inolvement of a previously unknown company called Devolver Digital, described as a "production and publishing company based in Austin, Texas, specializing in delivering top quality entertainment to gamers worldwide at affordable prices by any and all means available."

Through a little research, Big Download discovered that Devolver Digital is in fact the new company from Mike Wilson and Harry Miller, two of the co-founders of the now legendary Gathering of Developers and later the co-founders of Gamecock. When contacted Wilson admitted his and Miller's involvement with the company "along with a few other old friends."

Wilson told us, "We're basically acting as the production company for the XBLA game, since we are not an official MSFT publisher yet, and will be publishing the PC version of the games." Gathering of Developers was the first publisher for Croteam's Serious Sam games and Wilson told us, "Croteam owns the IP still since they had a g.o.d. deal, and are therefore able to work with us again on the new version(s)." We hope to get more info on Wilson's newest game venture in the near future.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #5 on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 02:56:37 PM »
Will The Second Encounter be reworked onto SS3 Engine, too?

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #6 on: Thursday, June 25, 2009, 04:48:04 PM »
That's pretty cool.  The Gamecock thing got old quick, but I've been hoping those guys would do something else.

I could be inspired to grab this and play through again.  Especially if it's both encounters.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #7 on: Friday, June 26, 2009, 02:06:45 PM »
That's pretty cool.  The Gamecock thing got old quick, but I've been hoping those guys would do something else.

I could be inspired to grab this and play through again.  Especially if it's both encounters.

I would be happy if to hold me over, GOG suddenly picked up SS: Gold.

I have SS2, which I got cheap from Gogamer -- I just ain't got started on it.

Offline idolminds

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday, August 05, 2009, 01:15:25 PM »
More screens!

Croatia, FUCK YEAH!

Offline gpw11

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #9 on: Thursday, August 06, 2009, 11:34:11 PM »
I take it the physics engine is also updated?  SS with ragdoll physics could be really really fun.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #10 on: Thursday, August 06, 2009, 11:49:44 PM »
Haha, man that game still looks goofy as hell.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline idolminds

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #11 on: Thursday, August 27, 2009, 01:57:52 PM »

Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #12 on: Thursday, August 27, 2009, 02:06:38 PM »
Best game trailer ever?

That was awesome! Loved it.

I hope they do put Second Encounter in HD, too.

Offline MysterD

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Offline idolminds

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #14 on: Tuesday, November 03, 2009, 07:57:15 PM »
PC version gone gold!

Though the XBLA version hasn't, and they are expected to release at the same time. So either we're going to wait or the thing is going through cert soon.

Offline MysterD

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Offline MysterD

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Offline gpw11

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #17 on: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 06:57:47 PM »
The Gamespot review for this game just brutalized it.  I think a lot of that had to do with the upgrades not being really all that great.

Offline W7RE

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #18 on: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 07:25:38 PM »
Hmm, both Sy's avatar and sig are being blocked by my virus software.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #19 on: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 07:30:08 PM »
I thought he just didn't have one.  Weird, I wonder if AVG is blocking it for me too.  I didn't think it could do that.  I have most of the web stuff turned off.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #20 on: Thursday, December 24, 2009, 07:45:27 PM »
The Gamespot review for this game just brutalized it.  I think a lot of that had to do with the upgrades not being really all that great.

From what I'm reading, looks like their real complaint is BUGS galore.

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Actually, there are more reasons to avoid the HD version of The First Encounter than to "upgrade" to it. Most notably, the game is incredibly buggy at launch. Incompatibilities with video and audio drivers have caused trouble for many users. Some even make the game virtually impossible to play. A quick glance at either the Croteam or Steam forums reveals how many gamers are having trouble. We ran into the main sound glitch noted online where the game crashes constantly due to a bug with audio sample rates. Both Windows XP and 7 were affected here, with the game locking up so frequently and even forcing occasional system reboots that it was unplayable. Even the first patch did nothing to rectify this problem. You can play the game fine with sound disabled in Windows, but that isn't a reasonable fix. Only editing an obscure line in the game's configuration file seems to clear up the issues. All in all, we spent at least six hours struggling with this annoying issue--which, coincidentally, is about the same amount of time it takes to finish the single-player part of the game. Croteam obviously kicked this one out the door long before it was ready for primetime.

Quote
Still, if you have never experienced Serious Sam before, the HD version is probably the way to go (well, as long as you can get past the bugs). This remains one of the best arcade shooters ever made.

Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #21 on: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 09:35:13 PM »
SS: The First Encounter HD patched on Steam.
Adds Ded-Server support.


Quote
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter Update Released
February 18, 2010, 1:59 pm - Valve - Product Update

Updates to Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter

    * Added Dedicated server. Use the Tools tab in Steam to install the dedicated server utility, then consult Help/DedicatedServer_Readme.txt for information about how to configure and run a server
    * When enumerating listen servers (i.e. non-dedicated), the servers from the entire world are now listed (as opposed to only those in your vicinity, as it was previously). This should help with low availability of servers in some parts of the world
    * Fixed case where weather/time-of-day on Hatshepsut were sometimes different on client and server (and wrongly recorded into demos)

Offline MysterD

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Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #23 on: Wednesday, July 07, 2010, 02:19:48 PM »
Now this is how you do a Press Release...

LOL!!!  ;D

Free weekend on Steam this weekend (July 8-11) for Serious Sam HD: The 2nd Encounter - MP portion (PC)....

Quote
Zagreb, Croatia, July 8, 2010 – In an effort to spread the Gospel of Sam to those non-believers who still haven’t bathed in the redeeming light of high-definition, Croteam has decided to allow the few remaining heathens to partake in the visual delights of Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter’s over-the-top multiplayer modes. From July 8 through July 11, Steam users around the world will be able to play all the brilliant new modes of multiplayer fun with up to 16-playeres. New converts will be able to experience divine gameplay modes like Co-Op Survival, My Burden and Beast Hunt along with classic deathmatch and campaign co-op modes.

“This is total bullshit,” said Fork Parker, Chief Financial Officer at Devolver Digital. “How are we supposed to make any money by giving away our sweet multiplayer juice for free?”

Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter will also be discounted by 50% during the promotion. Seriously. Half off a game that already costs less than $20. That’s $10 sucka.

“Goddamnit,” replied Fork when asked for further comment.
« Last Edit: Wednesday, July 07, 2010, 02:46:28 PM by MysterD »

Offline idolminds

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #24 on: Wednesday, July 07, 2010, 03:57:02 PM »
Hahaha, thats awesome.

Offline Quemaqua

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #25 on: Wednesday, July 07, 2010, 05:27:25 PM »
Haha, nicely done.

天才的な閃きと平均以下のテクニックやな。 課長有野

Offline MysterD

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Re: Serious Sam: The First Encounter...HD
« Reply #26 on: Saturday, January 15, 2011, 02:43:57 PM »
Fusion DLC announced.
This DLC will fuse both SS:HD - The First Encounter and SS:HD - The Second Encounter into one entire big product.

HD First Encounter owners get this FREE.
Otherwise, it's $9.99 on Steam.

Quote
   
The Fusion DLC Pack combines all the campaign and multiplayer levels from Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter into Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter for the ultimate in classic first-person shooter mayhem. For the first time ever, enjoy new modes like Beast Hunt and My Burden using the classic maps from Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

    The Fusion DLC Pack is priced at $9.99 on Steam and is available at no charge for users that own Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter. Boom!

    -Adds 15 campaign levels and 7 versus levels from Serious Sam HD: First Encounter into Serious Sam HD: Second Encounter for an all new level of mayhem!

    -Play all your favorite campaign and multiplayer maps from Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter in the new game modes found in Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter!

    -Includes Co-Op Modes for First Encounter Maps: Campaign and Coin-Op

    -Includes Versus Modes for First Encounter Maps: Deathmatch, Beast Hunt, Capture the Flag, Instant Kill, Last Man Standing and My Burden

    -Includes Team Modes for First Encounter Maps: Team Deathmatch, Team Beast Hunt, Capture the Flag, and Last Team Standing

    -Use the powerful Serious Editor 3 to create your own levels based on content from Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.

Seriously! has been told that if this DLC gets a strong fanbase that future DLC projects will be possible. But our position is clear: why would you not get it? It is free if you already own The First Encounter (HD). And why would you skip the first half of the story? Madness! So the last person standing without a copy of this DLC will officially be an epic loser.